Cosmetic apparatus



1960 w. F. BAIRD COSMETIC APPARATUS Filed March 25. 1954 m, fr

FIG.2

INVENTOR FIG.|

United States PatentOi COSIVETIC APPARATUS William F. Baird, Los Angeles, Calif. (17014 Parthenia, Northridge, Calif.)

Filed Mar. 25, 1954, Ser. No. 418,639

7 Claims. (Cl. 62-530) This invention relates to improvements in methods of and apparatus for employing refrigeration for therapeutic and cosmetic purposes.

It is a purpose of this invention to provide convenient, inexpensive means for accumulating low temperature refrigeration from the ordinary household refrigerator or deep freezer; storing this refrigeration until needed; and quickly and conveniently using it to cool portions of the skin and underlying tissues.

It is an advantage of this invention that it makes possible more rapid cooling and cooling to lower temperatures than is possible with existing means available in the household and that it cools without wetting. Still further objects and advantages of this invention will appear more fully hereinafter.

The principle of this invention is capable of receiving a variety of expressions, some of which, for purpose of illustration, are shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein,

Fig. 1 is a view of one embodiment of this invention, with a section cut away to show its interior construction.

Figure 2 depicts a modification of this invention with sections cut away to show its interior construction.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation illustrating the type of refrigerator with which the apparatus of this invention may be used.

Fig. 4 illustrates details of portions of apparatus incorporating this invention.

Having reference to Fig. 1, the cylindrical hermetically sealed casing 1, which may be of light sheet metal, contains the coil 2, which may be of aluminum or other highly heat-conductive material. The coil 2 may be a single strip of aluminum with dimples protruding from each of its sides or otherwise deformed so as to space its successive turns apart from each other and space the outside of the coil 2 apart from the inside of the curved wall of the casing 1. The coil 2 is preferably wound loosely enough to allow successive turns to slide upon each other slightly in all planes. Space within the casing not occupied by the coil 2 is filled to about eightyeight percent of its capacity with the liquid 3, which may be water or a solution of ethyl alcohol, ethylene glycol, barium chloride or the like in water. After the liquid 3 is put in, heat is momentarily applied to the casing 1 until portions of the liquid 3 begin to boil. Vapor from this boiling flows out through the filling hole sweeping with it part of the air from the unoccupied portion of the casing 1. Immediately after boiling ceases the casing 1 is sealed. Upon cooling, condensation of the vapor produces a partial vaccuum within the casing 1. Pressure of the air outside forces the ends of the casing 1 tightly against the ends of the coil 2. Under certain circumstances, expansion due to freezing may bulge the ends of the casing 1 outward and away from the coil 2, but as melting occurs, pressure of the outside air restores the end of the casing 1 to contact with the coil 2. The space within the casing 1, approximating twelve ice I percent of its capacity, which contains only traces of air and the vapor of the liquid 3, also acts as an elastic cushion sufficiently compressible to compensate for the expansion of the liquid 3 due to freezing.

The outer curved surface of the casing 1 is covered with the cover 4, which may be of rubber or other material of relatively low thermal conductivity, and which provides the surface by which the apparatus is grasped by the user. The ends of the casing 1 are preferably coated with a substance not readily wetted by water, such as vinyl, polystyrene or tetrafluoroethylene resin or the like, upon which water droplets form a large contact angle. The purpose of this coating is to prevent the ends of the casing 1 from freezing strongly to the lips if wetted with saliva or to any part of the skin which might be wetted with water.

Fig. 2 depicts a modification of this invention wherein the casing 1 contains two coils 2-2, each having one end in contact with the inside of one of the ends of the casing 1. Between the coils 22 the spring 5 presses from the center against the bars 66, which in turn force the coils 22 against the inside of the ends of the casing 1. The liquid 3 is put in, boiled and the casing 1 sealed as in the case of the apparatus of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 illustrates a type of refrigerator with which the apparatus of this invention may be used. The apparatus of the invention 11 is shown in the ice cube compartment 10 of the refrigerator.

Fig. 4 depicts a modification of the coil 2 wherein the inner turns protrude from one end as compared with the outer turns, and recede from the other end as compared with the outer turns. In this modification the coil 2 may-preferably consist of two strips of heat-conductive material such as aluminum, one strip being dimpled and the other smooth. The two strips are placed side by side and wound into a coil. Friction between successive turns of such a coil is very slight and successive turns are free to slide upon each other in allplanes. It is an advantage of this modification that when pressed against the inside of the end of the casing 1 by the spring 5 each turn of the coil 2 can accommodate itself to the shape of the inside of the end of the casing 1 and make good thermal contact therewith whether the surface it touches is in one plane or not. This is important because due to the processes of assembly and forming, to variations of pressure within the casing 1 and to thermal stresses, the ends of the casing 1 are seldom in one plane. When a dimpled and a smooth strip are wound together into a coil it is preferable that the dimpled strip be sufficiently longer than the smooth strip so that the outer turn of the coil is dimpled. The dimples 9-9 on the outer turn space it apart from the curved surface of the casing 1 so as to diminish heat flow from the portion of the apparatus grasped by the user to the coil 2.

The operation of the apparatus illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 is as follows, the apparatus is kept in the ice cube compartment of a household refrigerator or in a deep-freezer until portions of the liquid 3 have been frozen. When the apparatus is to be used on the face,- the face, including the lips, is first coated with oil which is allowed to penetrate the outer layer of the skin, after which excess oil is wiped olf. The ends of the casing 1 are then rubbed with cloth to free them from frost, after which one of them is slid slowly across the skin, pressing firmly with an ironing motion. Heat flows rapidly from the skin to the end of the casing 1, thence to the edges of the coil 2 and thence to the ice crystals which are frozen to the surface of the coil 2 and in the narrow spaces between successive turns of the coil 2. The heat of fusion absorbed by the ice crystals as they melt maintains the liquid 3 at a low temperature so that heat continues to flow through the thermal path just described until melting is complete. It is an important advantage of this invention that the coil 2 conducts heat rapidly from the ends of the casing 1 which are applied to the areas to be cooled but conducts almost no heat from the curved sides of the casing 1 by which the user holds the apparatus.

Rapid withdrawal of heat from the skin causes the temperature regulatory mechanism of the body to dilate the capillaries and increase circulation of blood in the skin and underlying tissues. Rapid chilling is also believed to have an astringent effect upon the skin and underlying tissues. When used in treating bruises the increased circulation helps the removal of debris, repair of damaged tissues and reduction of pain.

The effectiveness of the device for either therapeutic or cosmetic use depends upon the rapidity of the chilling of the tissue. Since many household refrigerators are incapable of temperatures below 15 F., the liquid 2 must begin to freeze at a fairly high temperature so that its heat of fusion can be accumulated. Thus the thermal path between the mass of the liquid 2 and the end of the casing 1 must be highly efficient. The efficiency of this path depends greatly upon good contact between the edges of the turns of the coil 2 and the end of the casing 11. In freezing, the liquid 3 expands in all directions. It is one of the advantages of this invention that the coil 2 remains flexible in all planes to accommodate itself to this expansion and resume its original position when melting occurs. This is important because portions of the liquid 3 between turns of the coil 2 and remote from the end of the casing 1 may remain frozen while portions Within the coil 2 adjacent to the end of the casing 1 may melt as a result of the apparatus being used. The melted portion shrinks and draws in liquid from regions adjacent to the curved portion of the easing 1, where slight melting will also have occurred during use. This is actually the condition in which the apparatus will generally be replaced in the refrigerator after use. Re-freezing begins at the outer surface, so the liquid thus drawn in is confined between the turns of the coil 2 or between the end of the coil 2 and the end of the casing 1. As re-freezing proceeds, expansion of the confined liquid would force the coil 2 away from the end of the casing 1 or bulge the end of the casing 1 outwards. Flexibility of the coil 2 in all planes enables it to yield to pressures developed during re-freezing, avoiding permanent deformation of the casing 1 and returning to good contact with the end of the casing 1 as soon as melting starts again.

Clearly any space where the temperature is low enough may be used instead of a refrigerator for freezing the liquid 3, indeed this freezing may be done out of doors in sufficiently cold weather. It is obvious that many changes can be made in the apparatus herein illustrated and described and that parts of it may be embodied in different but equivalent structures without departing'from the principle of this invention or the scope of the following claims defining it.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for therapeutic or cosmetic use of refrigeration in combination a refrigerator, a casing, a liquid partially freezable in said refrigerator within said casing, a metallic heat-transfer member partially submerged in said liquid and one or more closed elastic vessels containing a gas adapted to maintain said heattransfer member in good heat-exchanging relationship with a portion of said casing.

2. In apparatus for the therapeutic or cosmetic use of refrigeration in combination a refrigerator, a casing, a liquid partially freezable in said refrigerator within said casing and a coiled metallic strip partially submerged in said liquid and compressed against a portion of said casing.

3. In apparatus for the therapeutic or cosmetic use of refrigeration in combination a casing, an aqueous liquid within said casing, a coiled metallic strip partially submerged in said liquid and means for maintaining edges of said strip in good heat-exchanging relation with a portion of said casing.

4. In apparatus for the therapeutic or cosmetic use of refrigeration in combination a refrigerator, a casing, a liquid freezable in said refrigerator within said casing, a coiled metallic strip partially submerged in said liquid and a spring adapted to compress edges of said strip against a portion of said casing.

5. In a therapeutic or cosmetic device in combination a substantially cylindrical casing, an aqueous liquid within said casing, a coiled metallic strip partially submerged within said liquid and elastic means adapted for maintaining edges of said strip in good heat-exchanging relationship with an end of said casing.

6. In apparatus for the therapeutic or cosmetic use of refrigeration in combination a refrigerator, a substantially cylindrical casing, a liquid partially freezable in said refrigerator Within said casing, a coiled metallic strip partially submerged in said liquid, elastic means for holding a portion of one edge of said strip in good heat-exchanging relation with an end of said casing, and means for thermally insulating the outer turn of said coiled strip from the sides of said casing.

7. In apparatus for the therapeutic or cosmetic use of refrigeration, in combination a casing, a metallic strip wound in spaced coils Within said casing, an aqueous liquid between successive coils of said strip and elastic means for maintaining a portion of one edge of said strip in good heat-exchanging relationship with a portion of said casing.

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,727,187 Weinrich Sept. 3, 1929 1,923,522 Whitehouse Aug. 22, 1933 2,037,417 Hull Apr. 14, 1936 2,129,572 Finnegan Sept. 6, 1938 2,152,467 Crosby Mar. 28, 1939 2,181,593 Whitaker Nov. 28, 1939 2,211,636 Bates Aug. 13, 1940 2,341,700 Diack Feb. 15, 1944 2,377,436 Mallard Jan. 5, 1945 2,389,317 Kitto Nov. 20, 1945 2,404,973 Mallard July 30, 1946 2,405,201 Franck Aug. 6, 1946 2,503,191 Branson Apr. 4, 1950 2,535,477 Andrae Dec. 26, 1950 2,576,591 Geyer Nov. 27, 1951 2,579,646 Branson Dec. 25, 1951 2,602,302 Doux July 8, 1952 2,686,404 Kurtz Aug. 17, 1954 2,697,424 Hanna Dec. 21, 1954 

